Guinea Pig

A good day.  Dad has been taken off the paralytic and the sedation.  This means he is doing more work on his own.  He is breathing on his own.  Yes, he is still on the ventilator.  Instead of his chest just fluttering, today, it was also rising and falling, more like normal.  The BP medication has been reduced to very little now.  The heart catheter has been removed.  All good signs.

He has not yet awakened.  He is, in fact, in a coma on his very own.  Each person is different; there is no telling when he will start responding neurologically.  He has had a C-collar around his neck, cradling his chin, since day one.  Until Dad can respond about where he has feeling, we will not know if there is a neck injury.  The scans do not indicate so. 

There is much concern about his hands and feet and vascular surgeons have been by to speculate.  This is where my dad becomes the guinea pig.  They proposed to spread a cream, something like a nitroglycerin cream, on his hands and feet and placing coverings on them.  This has never been done on other patients.  The cream will hopefully help to dilate the capillaries to allow more blood flow.  If this works, great.  However, the danger comes in possibly decreasing blood pressure--something they've been trying to increase in order to keep the ICP down.  The nurse was going to start slowly, seeing how Dad's BP would respond first to having one hand done, then the other, and then each foot.

Our family held a "fast" that ended yesterday evening.  We would like to thank all of you that particpated in the fast, have been praying for, and thinking of my father.  There has been such an outpouring of support and concern.  Thank you all.